In print products represented by newspapers or commercial print products, the same contents are mass-printed by using printing plates, and are transferred or distributed at costs or for free to carry out their mission.
Meanwhile, in the conventional printing fields, businesses have been done in well-versed printing fields such as pamphlet printing, book printing, and art book printing. Further, newspapers have arranged printing equipment in the companies separately from other printing fields to do businesses in the field of newspaper printing.
However, in recent years, newspapers are separating printing fields from the companies to establish printing companies or are introducing printings of other printing fields to do businesses, and printing companies, which have been irrelevant to newspapers, are being left in charge of the businesses of newspapers or are obtaining orders to introduce newspaper printing and do the businesses.
In this background, in recent years, for example, in the field of commercial printing, print products, such as individual direct mails, or pamphlets for customers of restricted regions, generations, or jobs, which have different individual contents, or a very small amount of print products are required. Likewise, even in the field of newspapers, including those covering various fields such as politics, economy, literature and arts, sports, hobbies, and entertainments, newspapers satisfying detailed tastes of readers, such as those restricting contents to the various fields, those for readers of restricted regions, generations, or jobs, or those having the characteristics of both, are increasingly requested. Further, digital printing is being highlighted as a printing method for producing a printing product corresponding to the request, and, for example, the following Patent Literatures 1 to 6 have suggested print product production methods and print product production devices.
A print product production method and a print product production device disclosed in Patent Literature 1 include (1) receiving digitally printed sheets through ink jet printing and the like or paper sheets obtained by cutting a digitally printed continuous paper one by one from a conveyor by a gripping unit or a receiving element such as a sucker and continuously carrying the sheets into a collection station, (2) overlapping the sheets in the collection station, (3) carrying out a stack body where a predetermined number of sheets are stacked from the collection station, (4) continuously carrying the succeeding printed sheets one by one into the collection station from which the stack body has been carried out, (5) carrying the stack body carried out from the collection station into a folding station, and (6) folding the stack body with the folding station and then carrying out the folded stack body from the folding station, and (1) to (6) are continuously performed by the stations.
A print product production method disclosed in Patent Literature 2 is substantially the same as that disclosed in Patent Literature 1. In detail, Patent Literature 2 is different from Patent Literature 1 in that a printed continuous paper is bisected in parallel to a continuous direction after dried, and that in the steps of (1) and (2), an intermittently rotated impeller mechanism is disposed in a collection station and sheets obtained by cutting a digitally printed continuous paper are discharged toward blades of the impeller horizontally to form a stack body, or sheets formed by cutting a digital printed continuous paper are sequentially inserted between the blades of the impeller where a plurality of blades are disposed circumferentially and a stack body is formed by dropping the corresponding sheets on a conveyor from the blades with an obstruction plate. Further, in the exemplary embodiment of Patent Literature 2, a print product production device by which the corresponding method can be performed is disclosed.
In a print product production method and a print product production device disclosed in Patent Literature 3, a digital printing system for printing a continuous paper, a side margin cutting station for cutting an unnecessary side margin of the continuous paper, a longitudinal cutting station for cutting the continuous paper longitudinally (parallel to the continuous direction), a transverse cutting station for cutting the continuous paper transversely (perpendicular to the continuous direction) to separate sheets, a removal unit for removing a defective product of the separated sheets having a detective printing part or a damage part from a processing path, a collection station for overlapping the sheets, a carrying unit for carrying a stack body of the sheets overlapped by the collection station to a transverse folding station, a transverse folding station for folding the stack body carried by the carrying unit transversely with respect to the carrying direction, a longitudinal folding station for folding the stack body in the carrying direction, a binding station for binding the folded stack body along a folding peripheral part, a second collection station for inserting signatures obtained by folding the stack body or folding and binding the stack body into each other, and a delivery station for delivering the finished print product are sequentially installed in parallel from an upstream side, and an unnecessary station is not operated according to the configuration and form of the produced print product, so that various types of print products which are different in aspects of configuration and form, in detail, a signature-shaped print product may be produced without stopping a continuous production process.
Further, in Patent Literature 3, by revealing a gazette number of an European patent, a rotary body mechanism for overlapping sheets on an outer circumferential surface thereof, where a plurality of pairs of claws arranged in parallel to an axis are installed and two claws in each pair alternately interpose sheets between the outer circumferential surface and the claws to hold the sheets is suggested as the collection station. Likewise, by revealing a gazette number of an European patent, a mechanism at least including a supply surface, a pair of initial folding rollers parallel to the supply surface and having axes parallel to each other, at least one pair of moving rollers having an axis perpendicular to the supply surface and installed at upper sides of the initial folding rollers, and linear knives which are folding blades disposed in parallel to the axis of the initial folding roller, where a sheet stack body positioned horizontally on the supply surface and carried is supplied between the initial folding roller pairs by pushing the sheet stack body upward to a part folded by the linear knife, the two initial folding rollers interpose the pushed sheet stack body to be rotated about an axis while forming an imperfectly folded part so as to deliver the sheet stack body to at least one pair of moving rollers disposed above the initial folding rollers, and at least one moving roller interposes the folded part to be rotated while forming a perfectly folded part so as to deliver the sheet stack body in parallel to the axis of the initial folding roller is suggested as one or both of the transverse folding station and the longitudinal folding station.
In a print product production method disclosed in Patent Literature 4, when a print product is a newspaper of a broadsheet size, a newspaper surface of a broadsheet size whose two surfaces are parallel to each other in the widthwise direction of the continuous paper by making the widthwise direction parallel to the widthwise direction of the continuous paper are repeatedly printed by a digital printing unit by making the newspaper surface parallel to the continuous direction of the continuous paper by a predetermined number, the continuous paper is sent to a downstream side to adjust the printed newspaper surface and cut the newspaper into a lengthwise size of the newspaper surface of the broadsheet side in parallel to the widthwise direction, and is scored to a center of the widthwise direction of the cut paper, the scored paper is sequentially hung so that the folding points thereof is matched with a rear portion of the collation chain, and the folded points of the plurality of papers hung on the collation chain pushed upward by a discharge member while being overlapped and is sandwiched to a counterpart carrying conveyor into two, and then is guided to a chopper folding mechanism to make a folding-in-four broadsheet size newspaper, and when a print product is a newspaper of a tabloid size which is a half size of the broadsheet size, a newspaper surface of a tabloid size which are parallel in two surfaces in the continuous direction of the continuous paper by making the lengthwise direction parallel to a widthwise direction of the continuous paper is disposed in parallel in the widthwise direction of the continuous paper, the continuous paper repeatedly printed by a digital printing unit by making the continuous direction of the continuous paper by a predetermined number is sent to a downstream side to be matched with a printed newspaper surface and is cut in parallel to the widthwise direction by a length twice as long as the width size of the newspaper surface of the tabloid size, and is scored to a center of the widthwise direction of the cut paper, the scored paper is sequentially hung so that the folding points thereof is matched with a rear portion of the collation chain, and the folded points of the plurality of papers hung on the collation chain pushed upward by a discharge member while being overlapped and is sandwiched to a counterpart carrying conveyor into two and is guided to a cutting and binding station, and is cut along the scored folded point to form a cut sheet stack body where a second surface of the newspaper of the tabloid size whose widthwise direction is parallel to the cut marginal part, and if necessary, a center of the arrangement direction of the second surface of the newspaper surface of the stack body is bound along a direction perpendicular to the cut marginal part and is guided to a chopper folding mechanism so that a center of the arranging direction of the second surface of the newspaper of the stack body is chopper-folded along a direction perpendicular to the cutting marginal part with the chopper folding mechanism to form a newspaper of a folding-in-two tabloid size.
In other words, Patent Literature 4 discloses production of a folding-in-four print product having a print surface matching with a width size of a continuous paper and a folding-in-two print product having a print surface matching with a size of a half of a width size of a continuous paper. Further, in the exemplary embodiment of Patent Literature 4, a print product production device by which the corresponding method can be performed is disclosed.
Meanwhile, Patent Literatures 5 and 6 disclose print product production devices for ink jet printing a continuous paper, cutting the continuous paper to form a sheet-shaped print product, and integrating the print product in an integration unit. Further, Patent Literature 5 discloses that a cutting length (moving direction length of a continuous paper) of a sheet formed to correspond to a size of the print surface is changed.